White House Suspends Access of CNN’s Acosta

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump had a testy exchange with CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta, including a moment when a female White House intern tried unsuccessfully to take the microphone from Acosta after Trump said he was done answering questions from him.

Now the White House has announced Acosta will no longer have access to the White House.

I’ve just been denied entrance to the WH. Secret Service just informed me I cannot enter the WH grounds for my 8pm hit

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) November 8, 2018

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders addressed the matter on Twitter:

President Trump believes in a free press and expects and welcomes tough questions of him and his Administration. We will, however, never tolerate a reporter placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern…

— Kayleigh McEnany 45 Archived (@PressSec45) November 8, 2018

This conduct is absolutely unacceptable. It is also completely disrespectful to the reporter’s colleagues not to allow them an opportunity to ask a question. President Trump has given the press more access than any President in history.

— Kayleigh McEnany 45 Archived (@PressSec45) November 8, 2018

Contrary to CNN’s assertions there is no greater demonstration of the President’s support for a free press than the event he held today. Only they would attack the President for not supporting a free press in the midst of him taking 68 questions from 35 different reporters…

— Kayleigh McEnany 45 Archived (@PressSec45) November 8, 2018

As a result of today’s incident, the White House is suspending the hard pass of the reporter involved until further notice.

— Kayleigh McEnany 45 Archived (@PressSec45) November 8, 2018

…over the course of 1.5 hours including several from the reporter in question. The fact that CNN is proud of the way their employee behaved is not only disgusting, it‘s an example of their outrageous disregard for everyone, including young women, who work in this Administration

— Kayleigh McEnany 45 Archived (@PressSec45) November 8, 2018

Here’s a clip of Acosta’s interaction with the intern:

JUDGE FOR YOURSELF: Did @Acosta "plac[e] his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a @WhiteHouse intern," as @PressSec claims? Here’s the video of the exchange being used as pretext to suspend @Acosta's credentials. pic.twitter.com/3ku9C2iBrk

— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) November 8, 2018

Acosta disputed Sanders’ account:

This is a lie. https://t.co/FastFfWych

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) November 8, 2018

Conservative author Ben Shapiro also weighed in:

This is not what happened. You could have banned him simply for refusing to abide by any of the normal rules of the press room. No need to state something happened that didn’t. https://t.co/p9hgtVE8eZ

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) November 8, 2018

Meanwhile, the White House Correspondents’ Association called on the White House to “immediately reverse this weak and misguided action.”

WHCA statement on White House decision on credentials. pic.twitter.com/bukK7CGu2G

— WHCA (@whca) November 8, 2018

CNN issued a statement, saying Acosta has the organization’s “full support”:

https://twitter.com/CNNPR/status/1060350746703597568

Read The Daily Signal’s Fred Lucas’ full report for more details on what happened at the Trump press conference Wednesday.